Read the Quran
- Nun. By the pen, and all that they write!
- By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man.
- Most surely, you will have a never ending reward.
- For you are truly of a sublime character.
- Soon you will see, as will they,
- which of you is a prey to madness.
- Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path.
- Do not give in to the deniers of truth.
- They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate.
- Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths,
- or to any defamer or one who spreads slander,
- or to one who places obstacles in the way of good being done or to the wicked transgressor,
- who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born;
- just because he has wealth and sons,
- when Our revelations are recited to him, he says, ‘These are just ancient fables.’
- Soon We will brand him on the nose.
- We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning,
- and made no allowance [for the will of God].
- A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept.
- And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land.
- So they called out to each other at the break of dawn,
- saying, ‘Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits.’
- So they went off, whispering to one another,
- ‘Be sure to stop any poor person from entering the orchard today.’
- They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent.
- But when they saw it, they said, ‘We must have lost our way.
- Indeed, we are utterly ruined!’
- The more upright of the two said, ‘Did I not bid you to glorify God?’
- They said, ‘Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong.’
- Then they began to heap reproaches on each other.
- They said, ‘Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale.
- May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him.’
- Such was their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it!
- Those who are mindful of their Lord will be rewarded with gardens of bliss.
- Should We treat the true believers and the wrongdoers alike?
- What ails you? How ill you judge!
- Have you a Scripture that tells you
- that you will be granted whatever you choose?
- Or do you have Our solemn oaths, binding upon Us till the Day of Resurrection, that you shall have whatever you yourselves decide?
- Ask them, which of them will vouch for that!
- Or have they other partners [besides God]? Let them bring forth their other partners, if what they say be true.
- On the Day when the truth shall be laid bare, they will be called upon to prostrate themselves, but they will not be able to do so.
- Their eyes will be cast down and they will be covered in shame; they were bidden to prostrate themselves, when they were safe and sound [but they did not obey].
- So leave to Me those who reject this message. We shall lead them step by step to their ruin, in ways beyond their ken.
- I shall grant them some respite, for My plan is powerful.
- Do you demand some recompense from them that would weigh them down with debt?
- Is the unseen within their grasp so that they write it down?
- Wait patiently for your Lord’s judgement; do not be like the man who, having been swallowed by a whale, called out in distress.
- Had his Lord’s grace not been bestowed upon him, he would have been cast away in disgrace upon that desolate shore.
- But his Lord chose him for His own and made him one of the righteous.
- When those who deny the truth hear the admonition, they would almost cause you to stumble with their evil eyes; and they say, ‘He is certainly mad.’
- Yet it is purely an admonition to mankind.
68:1
‘By the pen, and all that they write’ refers to historical record. In historical records of human memoirs accumulated and preserved in the shape of history, the Quran is an exceptional book and the bearer of that book an exceptional personality. This quality of being exceptional cannot be explained unless the Quran is accepted as the book of God and Muhammad as His Prophet.
68:2-4
Having a sublime character means rising above the standard of others’ behaviour. It should not be the believer’s way to deal badly with those who are not good to him, while giving fair treatment to those who are good to him. On the contrary, he should do good to everybody, even though others may not do the same for him. The character of the Prophet was of the latter type, which proves that he was a man of principle. He was not a product of circumstances, but of his own high principles. His sublime character was consistent with his claim to be a prophet.
68:5-16
‘Do not give in to the deniers of truth’ means that the words of those who deny the truth are not worthy of acceptance. On the one hand, there is the upholder of Truth, who has taken his stand by virtue of reasoning. There is no contradiction between his words and his actions. On the other hand, there are his opponents who are of low character and have nothing to their credit except for false utterances. The missionary of Truth relies on Truth, whereas his opponents rely on their material status. The missionary of Truth is a follower of principles, unlike his opponents who are unprincipled, and whose views are highly inconsistent. For one who has a sound mind, this difference is enough to show who is on the right path and who is not.
68:17-33
Whatever a man earns in this world is apparently from farming or industry or other such pursuits. But, in fact, it is all given to him by the grace of God. If one considers it a gift from God and sets apart a portion of it for other subjects of God, Almighty God will bless his earnings. On the contrary, one who considers his earnings the result purely of his own talents and who is not, therefore, prepared to give others their dues, will find that his earnings will be of no avail. This is a strict law of God. In some cases, it manifests itself in this world, but in the Hereafter it will manifest itself for all, and none shall be exempt from it.
68:34-41
A man who is not God-fearing gives importance only to visible material things, whereas the God-fearing person is one who is serious about the unseen reality. Such entirely different characters cannot have an identical fate.
68:42-45
On the Day of Judgement when God will reveal Himself, the true believers will fall prostrate before their Lord, just as they bowed down before Him in their previous life. On this occasion, the deniers will be inspired likewise to prostrate themselves (sajdah). But the backs of the people who offered ‘false prostration’ in this world, will grow stiff just as they virtually were in this world. Such people will want to prostrate themselves at that time of realisation, but they will not be able to do so. It will be the greatest sign of God’s appreciation of sincere people of Faith that He Himself should appear and accept their offering of sajdah. On the contrary, it will be the moment of the greatest humiliation for those making false claims of Faith; in spite of their Creator and Lord being right there before them, they will not be able to do obeisance to Him.
68:46-52
The relationship between the missionary and his addressees is a very delicate one. The missionary has to make himself pleasant-mannered unilaterally. The addressee may talk unreasonably, he may hold the missionary in contempt, and may make false allegations against him. In short, he may do anything of a discourageing nature, but the missionary must at all times abstain from negative reaction. His success is dependent upon two things—tolerance of excesses on the part of the addressee and having no expectation of material gain from him.
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